In this observation, pay attention to how your teacher manages his or her classroom. What types of disruptions, if any, occur while you're visiting? How do they set the class in motion? How do they deal with interruptions (from the outside) and disruptions (from their students)? Determine whether there are students in the classes that you will teach that are especially troublesome. Ask your CT how he or she addresses these students' needs. Reflect on your "vision" of an ideal science classroom. What classroom policies will you try to implement in YOUR classroom? How does your vision align with your teaching philosophy?
During past visits a number of disruptions have occurred. Some have been from the students while others have been from outside forces. As my CT said though, it’s a rare day in a classroom when a lesson goes exactly as planned with no disruptions.
My first day of visiting, the sophomores were taking the NECAP and the whole school was in a state of confusion. Once the schedule was finally understood by both the teachers and the students, an irregular day of classes finally began. The biggest disruption I saw that day was that first period was extra long and was finally supposed to end at 10:00. However, due to test takers who needed more time the period ended up being extended even longer until 10:45. As a teacher this can be a big issue because if you planned your lesson to end at 10:00 what to you do to extend learning for another 45 minutes that you did not plan on having? Also how do you keep the students focused when they have been in the same class for over 3 hours? I happened to be observing a teacher other than my CT at this time because he was proctoring the NECAP. This teacher handled the situation well. It turned out that the students in her class had an exam coming up so she used the extra time for an impromptu Jeopardy/review session which was both useful and yet kept the students focused. I liked how this teacher handled the situation because to have let the students just talk for the extra time would have been a waste of time. Yet to try and keep the lesson going would have been torture for the already worn out students. Therefore, the switch to a game that was both fun yet educational was a really good idea.
Also later that day due to another NECAP induced schedule mistake we ended up with two different classes in the same room. It was interesting to see how the teachers involved handled the situation. What they did was simply separate the classes to two different sides of the room and continue with their individual lessons. I did not like this strategy so much because the room got very loud and the classes were notably distracted by what the other class was doing. Both the classes were Biology classes so although they were at different points in the class I would have worked with the other teacher to come up with a common lesson we could do together. Although I realize that this is also not ideal I think the students would have gotten more out of the lesson because they would have at least been able to concentrate and focus more. A final external conflict that I saw was when my CT and another teacher both thought they had booked the computer lab for the same time and both showed up with their classes ready to use it. The teachers worked it out by saying that they would split the time which ended up working out well because it was lunch period so both classes ended up having enough time in the lab. While waiting for our turn my CT had the students work on their graphs that went with the lab reports they were going to be typing up in the computer lab. Originally my CT planned on having the students make the graphs with the computers in Excel. However, a little change like this was easy to implement and did not change the integrity of the lesson or assignment so I thought this change was good thinking on my CT’s part as he ran into this unexpected problem.
In addition to outside distractions, there are also distractions from students themselves. I spoke about this issue in my last Journal as well. My CT handles misbehaving students by asking them to step outside with him where he gives them a brief ‘lecture’ or sometimes a punishment such as detention before letting them back inside. I like this approach for two reasons. One it lets you speak to the student privately so that they are not being embarrassed in front of their classmates and can tell you more honestly what is going on with them. Also it keeps the students in the learning environment which I believe is better than kicking them out of class. For smaller student distractions my CT simply reminds the students to get back on task or moves around the room to stand closer to the misbehaving student. The team classes are more troublesome then the other classes but as I have mentioned in pervious journals my CT plans for this. He tweaks his lessons so that his approach is more hands on and he can spend more time working with groups and individuals. Therefore, this is something I will have to keep in mind when I plan my lessons for these classes.
Throughout my couple of visits at NK so far I have seen many distractions from both students and other sources. These are interesting to see because they remind me that teachers need to constantly be on their toes and ready to change gears at any moment. My vision of a good science classroom is one where the students are engaged, focused, and having fun while learning. Therefore my goal for handling distractions is to make sure that whatever spur of the moment decisions need to be made keep the integrity of the lesson. No day will ever go by completely smoothly in any classroom but as long as the teacher keeps a level head and asks themselves how they can best resolve the issue while keeping student learning as the number one priority, distractions can be made, well less distracting.
During past visits a number of disruptions have occurred. Some have been from the students while others have been from outside forces. As my CT said though, it’s a rare day in a classroom when a lesson goes exactly as planned with no disruptions.
My first day of visiting, the sophomores were taking the NECAP and the whole school was in a state of confusion. Once the schedule was finally understood by both the teachers and the students, an irregular day of classes finally began. The biggest disruption I saw that day was that first period was extra long and was finally supposed to end at 10:00. However, due to test takers who needed more time the period ended up being extended even longer until 10:45. As a teacher this can be a big issue because if you planned your lesson to end at 10:00 what to you do to extend learning for another 45 minutes that you did not plan on having? Also how do you keep the students focused when they have been in the same class for over 3 hours? I happened to be observing a teacher other than my CT at this time because he was proctoring the NECAP. This teacher handled the situation well. It turned out that the students in her class had an exam coming up so she used the extra time for an impromptu Jeopardy/review session which was both useful and yet kept the students focused. I liked how this teacher handled the situation because to have let the students just talk for the extra time would have been a waste of time. Yet to try and keep the lesson going would have been torture for the already worn out students. Therefore, the switch to a game that was both fun yet educational was a really good idea.
Also later that day due to another NECAP induced schedule mistake we ended up with two different classes in the same room. It was interesting to see how the teachers involved handled the situation. What they did was simply separate the classes to two different sides of the room and continue with their individual lessons. I did not like this strategy so much because the room got very loud and the classes were notably distracted by what the other class was doing. Both the classes were Biology classes so although they were at different points in the class I would have worked with the other teacher to come up with a common lesson we could do together. Although I realize that this is also not ideal I think the students would have gotten more out of the lesson because they would have at least been able to concentrate and focus more.
A final external conflict that I saw was when my CT and another teacher both thought they had booked the computer lab for the same time and both showed up with their classes ready to use it. The teachers worked it out by saying that they would split the time which ended up working out well because it was lunch period so both classes ended up having enough time in the lab. While waiting for our turn my CT had the students work on their graphs that went with the lab reports they were going to be typing up in the computer lab. Originally my CT planned on having the students make the graphs with the computers in Excel. However, a little change like this was easy to implement and did not change the integrity of the lesson or assignment so I thought this change was good thinking on my CT’s part as he ran into this unexpected problem.
In addition to outside distractions, there are also distractions from students themselves. I spoke about this issue in my last Journal as well. My CT handles misbehaving students by asking them to step outside with him where he gives them a brief ‘lecture’ or sometimes a punishment such as detention before letting them back inside. I like this approach for two reasons. One it lets you speak to the student privately so that they are not being embarrassed in front of their classmates and can tell you more honestly what is going on with them. Also it keeps the students in the learning environment which I believe is better than kicking them out of class. For smaller student distractions my CT simply reminds the students to get back on task or moves around the room to stand closer to the misbehaving student. The team classes are more troublesome then the other classes but as I have mentioned in pervious journals my CT plans for this. He tweaks his lessons so that his approach is more hands on and he can spend more time working with groups and individuals. Therefore, this is something I will have to keep in mind when I plan my lessons for these classes.
Throughout my couple of visits at NK so far I have seen many distractions from both students and other sources. These are interesting to see because they remind me that teachers need to constantly be on their toes and ready to change gears at any moment. My vision of a good science classroom is one where the students are engaged, focused, and having fun while learning. Therefore my goal for handling distractions is to make sure that whatever spur of the moment decisions need to be made keep the integrity of the lesson. No day will ever go by completely smoothly in any classroom but as long as the teacher keeps a level head and asks themselves how they can best resolve the issue while keeping student learning as the number one priority, distractions can be made, well less distracting.